District 64 has crowned its first “three-peat” District-wide champion speller, Catherine Sernel, a grade 7 student at Lincoln Middle School. Sernel edged out fellow Lincoln middle schooler Zoe Berthold, an 8th grader, to take the top honors at the 2016 District 64 Bee, which was held on January 25 at Roosevelt School. Emerson Middle School grade 7 student Justin Kim placed third.
Sernel moves on to regional competition at the North Cook ISC Scripps Spelling Bee on February 2 at Joseph Sears School in Kenilworth.
Sernel and Berthold battled for 28 rounds before Sernel spelled “quell” to secure her three-peat victory. Spelling bees were held at all seven schools earlier in January, with the top three spellers from each school earning an invitation to the District competition. The District bee lasted 42 rounds in all.
Incorporating the advanced vocabulary words students were asked to master, Meghan Keefer, District 64 Language Arts Curriculum Specialist, reported that: “All of the students who participated in this upper ‘echelon’ of competition have developed ‘effusive’ spelling and vocabulary skills. We witnessed true good sportsmanship, and nobody demonstrated a ‘sanctimonious’ attitude,” she added lightheartedly.
District Bee judges were Carpenter teacher Sue Douglass, Franklin teacher Shirlee Pater and Keefer; pronouncer was Tracie Thomas, District 64 Curriculum Specialist for Mathematics.
Overall, 194 students participated in the bees, which are offered as an extracurricular activity for students in grades 3-8.
The top three students from the 2016 elementary school bees included: Carpenter - Victoria Karp (grade 3), and Jenna Pravecek and Sara Plaza (both grade 5); Field - Izabela Bisiak (grade 4), and Colette Hennes and Angelica Przytula (both grade 5); Franklin - Chloe Bai (grade 5), Mary Keller (grade 4), and Nathan Kapetanou (grade 3); Roosevelt - Thomas Hurley and Claire Lisowski (both grade 3), and Tommy Devlin (grade 5); and Washington - Callie Berthold, Ryan Gaertner, and Theo Rorem (all grade 5).
The top three spellers from the 2016 middle school bees included: Emerson - Siyeon Kim (grade 6), and Justin Kim and Kenneth Kim (both grade 7); Lincoln - Catherine Sernel (grade 7), and Zoe Berthold and Fiona Maloney (both grade 8).